Utah Canyonlands National Park Trail Floods
Officials are warning Canyonlands National Park visitors that part of the White Rim trail in eastern Utah is impassable because of flooding from a nearby river.

Zitat

Officials are warning Canyonlands National Park visitors that part of the White Rim trail in eastern Utah is impassable because of flooding from a nearby river.
Canyonlands National Park official Mary Wilson said on Wednesday that a combination of heavy rain and snow runoff has caused the Green River to rise.
Wilson says this type of water level rise is fairly standard for this time of year. She says she hasn't heard of anyone being stranded because of the flooding.
Park service officials say they don't know exactly how long the western part of the trail will be impassable.

Shafer Trail in Canyonlands National Park to Close for Construction July 18 through July 28

Zitat

Road construction on Shafer Trail at Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands National Park will result in its closure to all travel weekdays from July 18 through July 28. The road will be open on weekends.

During the road closure, drivers who enter the park via the Potash Road will not be able to get to Island in the Sky Visitor Center, mesa top trails, nor Highway 313 via the Shafer Trail.

The White Rim Road will only be accessible via the Potash and Mineral Bottom roads. Day-use and overnight permits are required for all travel on the White Rim Road.

Visitors who wish to travel the White Rim Road, and existing permit holders, should contact a park ranger for information about how this closure may affect their trip plans. Contact a ranger by emailing the park’s backcountry office or calling 435-259-4351 (weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.).

Zitat

Conservationists are warning that an oil and gas lease auction the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has scheduled for September includes parcels near Canyonlands National Park in Utah, some which could be seen from the park's Horseshoe Canyon annex.
According to the National Parks Conservation Association, the lease auction affects nealry 160,000 acres near Canyonlands. The BLM offered a 10-day period for comment that ends August 6.
“Rather than striking a balance between energy development and national park protection, this administration continues to lease first, and ask questions later. Cutting out the public from public lands decisions is having serious impacts in Utah and this time puts Canyonlands, one of the nation’s iconic national parks, at risk," said Jerry Otero, NPCA's Southwest energy program manager. “The exclusion of a public comment period on the anticipated environmental impacts from development on lands that will affect Canyonlands National Park, which sees nearly 800,000 visitors, is backwards.
“What are we saying about the value of our parks when we are willing to risk these unique landscapes and protected places for the sake of short-term development?," he added. "The BLM must seriously weigh the many non-drilling uses of shared landscapes that are critical to supporting the immediate and long-term integrity of these special places.”
Canyonlands National Park, a designated International Dark Sky Park, welcomed more than 740,000 visitors in 2017. Visitors contributed more than $44 million in tourism spending to local economies and supported more than 600 jobs. The larger constellation of leases puts at risk the remote nature of the area and its dark skies and natural quiet, in addition to elevating air pollution by drastically increasing industrial traffic on rural roads in southern Utah, NPCA said.

This lease sale by the BLM adds to a growing list of proposed oil and gas development on BLM land near national parks, which since the start of 2017 has included parcels near Dinosaur and Hovenweep national monuments, and Zion, Great Sand Dunes, and Theodore Roosevelt national parks.

Zitat

A disturbing trend over the past several years has been visitors in national parks visiting less traveled areas and not respecting the beauty and resources that these natural and culturally important destinations deserve. With the wanderlust culture and the demystifying of areas via social media tourism, previously unknown and culturally significant places are becoming public attractions with the inevitable issues that go along with some individuals that simply don’t respect the destinations themselves.
The newest area to be vandalized is in Canyonlands National Park where the False Kiva is located (pictured above by Ryan Smith). According to sources at the Canyonlands National Park, there were two incidents that have caused the closure in early August. First, an unknown party or individual started a fire within the kiva itself and then used the ashes to place hand prints at the site. Sometime afterwards, another visitor attempted to clean up the kiva and disrupted the area even more. As a photographer that sees these areas in person several times a year, it is appalling at the disrespect that some individuals seem to have towards our natural and culturally distinct wonders, especially in these protected areas.
False Kiva is a Class II Archeological site that is protected more by its unmarked status than anything else. It is not necessarily easy to reach as it’s not on any national park maps as a result of this status. It takes a certain amount of intention to find and experience False Kiva, which with websites and social media starting to share these locations, has now helped in some small part to disturb and now close such a beautiful piece of history. With national parks becoming more conscious of the loss of history due to actions like vandalism, personal experiences are becoming more limited to protect these areas, which may not be what we as photographers want but what the conservation of these areas require.
Leave No Trace principals and the ethics of exploring natural areas are consistently iterated throughout the national parks through signage, pamphlets, and from the National Park Service rangers. At the entrance of every park these expectations are given to every visitor. Conservation starts with the individual and educating groups consistently and repeatedly that as these places are explored we are liable for their continued existence. It’s every person's, photographer or not, to help conserve these areas for future generations to experience.

Zitat

Arches and Canyonlands national parks in southeastern Utah have reopened their visitor centers that have been closed due to the federal government shutdown.
Parks officials said in Facebook posts that donations from the Canyonlands Natural History Association allowed visitor centers at Arches National Park and the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands National Park to open daily 9 a.m.-to-4 p.m.
Efforts are underway at both parks to clear roads and sidewalks but the status of roads could depend on weather conditions. The Utah Department of Transportation says it’s working with park officials to reopen roads.

Zitat

Whether you’re traveling by car or by jeep, the approaches to Utah’s Canyonlands National Park rank among the most scenic in the West. Following Utah Highway 211 down Indian Creek Canyon into the Needles District, or jouncing along a rugged backcountry route into the park’s western side, you’re witness to geologic processes acting on a vast scale.

There’s another entrance to Canyonlands, though, which runs at river level, and this is the one my wife and I like best. This spring Bessann and I steered our canoe down the Green River into the northern end of the park, heading for its confluence with the Colorado River 50 miles downstream. It was a slower approach, one which let us savor the sights and sounds along one of the Southwest’s great desert waterways.

Five days earlier we’d put our boat in the river at Crystal Geyser, 70 miles upstream from the park boundary. We allotted ten days for the whole trip, although strong paddlers can do it in less time. Many boaters finish their trip at Mineral Bottom, just upstream from the park, which has road access from Utah Highway 313. This, however, omits the scenic climax that is Canyonlands.
Colin, our shuttle driver with Tex’s Riverways in Moab, saw us off at Crystal with some good words about watching the wind and keeping safe. His co-workers would meet us with a jet boat at Spanish Bottom, three miles below the Confluence, for the two-hour ride back up the Colorado River to civilization. This high-powered craft is the only way (short of bringing an outboard motor) to transport a canoe back from deep inside the park. Moab’s Canyonlands River Tours also offers this service.
Last year the National Park Service issued 570 permits for flatwater boating in Canyonlands, mostly for canoeists and kayakers floating the Green River in Stillwater Canyon. (Meander Canyon on the Colorado River can also be floated from Moab to the Confluence, but it receives somewhat less use.) Those wishing to continue on through the rip-roaring rapids of Cataract Canyon need a whitewater permit, no canoes allowed. We were content with the easy paddling on the Green, a trip we’ve made four times now.
All of our camps were “high bank,” well above the sandbars that line the river in autumn and which offer nearly unlimited camping spots. Fortunately, most of the campsites we wanted were available. Several times we shared a site with a congenial couple from Ventura, California, who were enjoying the river by pack raft, a method that is growing in popularity.
There’s no lottery system for the flatwater section of the Green, at least not yet, which is a welcome exception to other popular whitewater trips such as Utah’s San Juan River. You do need to obtain a permit beforehand through a Park Service website [https://www.nps.gov/cany/planyourvisit/flatwater.htm], pay a fee, and bring all required safety and camping gear, including a fire pan and waste disposal system. These measures keep the campsites and river environment attractive. The park’s river rangers stress the importance of not leaving human waste behind and avoiding cryptobiotic soil crusts. Sandbar camps are great for minimizing one’s impact, but heavy runoff this spring put them all under water.
This year’s trip came with a bonus: a chance to see one of Utah’s newest wilderness areas. North of Canyonlands, the Green River forms the eastern boundary of the 54,643-acre Labyrinth Canyon Wilderness, designated earlier this year as part of the mammoth John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act, which Congress passed in March. The west bank of Desolation Canyon, farther upstream on the Green, was also designated wilderness in this bill, and 63 miles of the river were designated under the 1968 Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. The reach of the Green we floated is designated as “scenic,” a label that certain fit. The new wilderness area, which is administered by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, takes in notable sights such as Trin-Alcove Bend, where three narrow canyons converge at the river, and Bowknot Bend, where one can climb to a stunning vantage point of the Green flowing in two directions.
Just as swinging a backpack onto your shoulder at the start of a long hike stirs memories of previous wilderness treks, the first dip of a paddle into a wild river announces the start of another pleasant voyage. This section of the Green is demarcated into two canyons, each named by Major John Wesley Powell following his historic voyages in 1869 and 1871. (We were 150 years in following the first of these.) Labyrinth Canyon, which Powell’s party named for its huge, looping meanders, presented no hazards, leading Powell to exult that, “There is an exquisite charm in our ride down this beautiful canyon. We are all in fine spirits. We whistle or shout or discharge a pistol to listen to the reverberations among the cliffs.”
Green River in Labryinth Canyon/Fred Swanson
Bessann and I had left our pistols at home, so we sat back and listened to the Canada geese as they protested with loud honks our drifting through their waters. Great blue herons lifted off from the bank with stately wingbeats, while overhead a golden eagle soared alongside the cliffs. As afternoon shadows lengthened, we searched the bank for a break in the tangle of tamarisk and willow, finding a small bench on which to pitch our tent. Further on, the campsites grew steadily more scenic.
A dozen miles of Labyrinth Canyon’s east bank are accessible to off-road vehicles, thanks to a dirt road that reaches the river at Spring Canyon. This brings considerable ATV and dirt bike traffic to part of the river corridor. We were glad to leave their echoing noise behind as we entered Canyonlands on day five, fighting an afternoon wind which presaged a spring storm. Wind is the canoeist’s biggest hazard on the Green, and at the first sign of an approaching squall we put in to shore. It’s remarkable to see foot-high waves moving upriver, driven by thunderstorm down-drafts. The storm passed by and we ventured on to Hades Camp, named either for its exposure to the sun or the broken-down cliffs of shale which surround it. Another storm brewed up as we pitched the tent, and I checked the guylines before disappearing inside. We emerged the next morning from a soaked tent to witness a refreshed, glistening world.
The river gives one the sense of a geologic cyclorama, revealing new vistas with every bend. By now we were deep within the Permian crust of Canyonlands, as revealed in the striking layers of White Rim and Cedar Mesa sandstones. These form continuous cliffs in many places, but at one looping bend of the river, a remnant of the White Rim sits turban-like atop a softer layer, forming the aptly named Turks Head. It watches over one of the most attractive campsites on the entire voyage.
Ancient remnants of Puebloan people, including granaries, stone dwellings and rock art, appear here and there in overhangs and on isolated boulders. Wildflowers were beginning to paint the slopes, too, including the deep-red claret cup cactus. We wished we could return in mid-May, when whole gardens of prickly pear and beavertail cacti would be in bloom.
Cruising on the swift current made the miles go by easily, except for one afternoon when we encountered the notorious upriver wind that often rages on clear days in spring. This time there was no place to land, so we stuck close to shore, digging hard with our paddles. Camp came as a relief that evening. We awoke to a clearing sky and a light northerly breeze, the southbound canoeist’s best friend.
Rivers have long been travel corridors, so there was human history to see along the way, from pictographs and petroglyphs left by ancient inhabitants to the unusual inscriptions left at several points on the river in 1836 by the trapper Denis Julien. There are cabin remnants such as the one perched above the river at Fort Bottom, but generally these remote canyons proved to be too much for even the hardiest Mormon farmer. At Anderson Bottom, a mile-long former sandbar, settlers had tried their luck since the 1880s with little success. Its most recent resident was Karl Tangren, who ran a rough-and-ready marina to serve motorboaters cruising the two rivers. His facilities, according to Samuel Schmieding’s administrative history of Canyonlands, included “a tent frame house, tavern, electric gas pump, boat dock, derrick, water system, fencing, domestic animals, fruit orchard and concrete dance floor.” Following Canyonlands’ establishment in 1964, Park Service officials spent several frustrating years trying to obtain the property and evict Tangren—a not-too-pleasant chapter in the park’s early history, but necessary in order to restore the natural values of this landscape. No sign of the old encampment remains, although the site is still used for the annual “Friendship Cruise” of motorboats coming from Green River and Moab.
The Park Service, in fact, had plans of its own to develop the Green River corridor after the park was established. A 1965 master plan depicted a paved loop road reaching the river at Upheaval Bottom, complete with boat marina, lodging, and campground. Thankfully, the agency moved away from this scheme and with today’s careful management, the river retains much of its wild aspect. We were able to enjoy the perfect stillness of the river at dusk and dawn, hikes to nearby rock art sites and dry waterfalls, and nights spent under a brilliant starlit sky.
By the time we reached Spanish Bottom, we were ready for hot showers and a fresh meal. Tex’s jet boat arrived right on time, and we boarded for the scenic, though noisy, voyage up the Colorado to the landing site at Potash, 15 miles below Moab. The contradiction inherent in these two modes of travel was not lost on us, but we were grateful for the chance to immerse ourselves in these amazing canyons, where the grandeur of cliff and tower mingles with the ribbon of life that marks a desert river.